I’ll admit that on occasion I use AI to do some research for me for a post because, at the time, I’m too lazy to perform the search myself. I usually know what I’m looking for, the AI bot is just faster at finding the resources, mostly. With that I mean not always as I have asked questions which I already know the correct answer, and the bot will give me something completely different.

Ask it something political, watch the side of the question is taken. Surprise! It’s never been the conservative viewpoint or even neutral. I wonder what that leaves? I once asked about the details of a policy that had been implemented and it proceeded to give me the opposition talking points. I stopped it, and told it that this was not what was implemented, it came back and told me I was correct and only then proceeded to give me the information I had requested.

So now I’ve been interested in asking random questions and seeing how long it takes it to give me what I asked. Recently, I asked for the origin of the idiom You can’t take it with you, and the program( yes, that’s all it really is in fact) came back with a Broadway play from 1936. Well, I was sure the phrase was older than that so I asked if that really was the origin. The program told me that no, the earliest known was in 1841. Really? Well, no, the earliest known publication using a similar phrase was in 1831. Better. It then went on to explain that the idiom derived from a text in the New Testament, 1 Timothy 6:7. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Finally, what I wanted in the beginning: The origin of the idiom.

Now that I think I have what I want, I can move on and do what I had intended to do in the first place which was to write something about this idiom that I’ve heard all my life but that I spent so much time asking a program to find what I wanted, I’m writing about the program instead.

Which brings me to all the fear and loathing we’ve been hearing lately about “AI” and how we need to regulate ir heavily or we might end up in a Terminator movie, or something. Even the CEO’s of these major AI development companies are lobbying the federal government for regulation. Their campaign, though, is purely in self interest. If they get what they want, these companies will monopolize AI making it difficult for any new entrants. And remember, AI bots are products of their programmers. They may learn but it’s not without programming by a human. These really don’t learn, like a human. They’re programed collect information like an almost infinite database, then organize it and present it as if it were some sort of intelligence. It’s a useful tool because the time to gather research, or even perform certain mundane tasks.

There’s absolutely nothing to fear. AI bots cannot launch world War III and they’re not spying on you through your doorbell. If anything is going on, it’s government attempting to scare the public into accepting more incursions into our rights to “protect us” fro these potentially evil computer programs. If you have to beware of anything, beware of them.